The Case Against Fluoride by Paul Connett and James Beck

The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics that Keep it ThereBy Paul Connett, PhD, James Beck, MD, PhD,& H.S. Micklem, DPhilChelsea Green Publishing, 2010

On the label of every tube of fluoride toothpaste is a statement which reads, “Drug Facts: Active Ingredient—Sodium Fluoride … Keep out of reach of children under six years of age. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.” The amount recommended for brushing is about the size of a pea. This pea-sized dab contains about the same amount of fluoride as one glass of water in areas that fluoridate the water. Do you drink the recommended eight glasses of water per day? Do you call the Poison Control Center when you do?

The insanity of intentional water fluoridation is examined from every angle in this book. International law forbids dumping fluoride waste into the sea but it is accepted in American drinking water. As stated in the toothpaste disclaimer above, the FDA officially considers fluoride to be a drug. This drug has never been approved by the FDA. Contaminating drinking water with fluoride can be most charitably characterized as an experiment which violates the Nuremburg Code prohibiting experimental human treatment without informed consent. China, India, Japan and most of Europe do not fluoridate their water.

One of the first studies claiming the safety of fluoride was done by Cox and Hodge. Cox worked for the giant aluminum company Alcoa. At that time fluoride was a major waste product of aluminum processing. It must have seemed like a wondrous miracle when Cox discovered that this toxic waste was safe and effective for preventing tooth decay when added to the water supply. The real miracle is that so many people apparently believe this. Hodge worked on the Manhattan Project supervising experiments on unsuspecting patients who were injected with uranium and plutonium. These guys have all the credibility of those famous leading scholars named Larry, Curly and Moe. If you believe the studies and health advice of Cox and Hodge, you might want to consider cutting back on eating those old lead-based paint chips.

Many other studies are reviewed, such as those of Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, who not only had no conflict of interest with the commercial entities involved but in fact suffered professionally for daring to suggest that fluoride might be problematic.

John Colquhoun of New Zealand promoted fluoride enthusiastically around the country for years. After traveling the world to survey the effects of fluoride, he realized he was quite wrong. Colquhoun was a man of rare courage and integrity, and spent the rest of his life trying to undo the damage he had done.

When the National Research Council came out with a report—over five hundred pages long—unfavorable to fluoride, the American Dental Association took less than one day to dismiss it. The Centers for Disease Control rejected it six days later. The director of Quackwatch called fluoride opponents “poison-mongers.” The irony piles pretty high when you consider that most opponents are unpaid and do much of this on their own dime, they have nothing to monger or sell, and are trying to remove the poison, not add it.

Toward the end of the book the authors pull out one of my all-time favorite quotes from the late Michael Crichton. “Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled….The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. . . There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.” THUMBS UP.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Spring 2011.

Tim Boyd was born and raised in Ohio, graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a degree in computer engineering, and worked in the defense industry in Northern Virginia for over 20 years. During that time, a slight case of arthritis led him to discover that nutrition makes a difference and nutrition became a serious hobby. After a pleasant and satisfying run in the electronics field, he decided he wanted to do something more important. He is now arthritis free and enjoying his dream job working for the Weston A. Price Foundation.